ally cut deep into it as well; and, furthermore,
the paint had all the appearance of having been applied at the same time
as that on the rest of her hull.

Upon our arrival alongside I was somewhat surprised to observe that the
crew had not taken the trouble to throw open the gangway, or put over a
side ladder; I had therefore to watch my opportunity and scramble aboard
by way of the main chains. The _Virginia_ was a very fine craft indeed,
measuring quite eight hundred tons, and carrying a fine, lofty, full
poop, by the rail of which stood a typical Yankee, eyeing me with even
greater malevolence than the Yankee of that day was wont to exhibit
toward the Britisher. He was tall, lean, and cadaverous, with long,
straight, colourless hair reaching almost to his shoulders, and a scanty
goatee beard adorning his otherwise clean-shaven face. His outer
garments, consisting of blue swallow-tail coat with brass buttons and
white kerseymere waistcoat and trousers--the former also trimmed with
brass buttons--seemed to have been made for a man many sizes smaller
than himself; for the coat was distinctly short at the waist, while the
sleeves terminated some four inches above the wrist; his waistcoat
revealed some two inches of soiled shirt between its lower hem and the
top of his trousers; and the latter garments did not reach his bony
ankles by quite three inches. He wore an enormous stick-up collar
reaching almost to the level of his eyes; his head was graced by an old
white beaver hat of the pattern worn by the postboys at that period, and
the nap looked as though it had never been brushed the right way since
it had been worked up into a hat. On his feet he wore white cotton
stockings or socks and low-cut slippers; he carried both hands in his
trousers pockets, and his left cheek was distended by a huge plug of
tobacco, upon which he was chewing vigorously when I scrambled in over
the rail and leaped down on the deck. As I did so I raised my hat and
courteously bade him good-morning.

Instead of returning my greeting, he ejected a copious stream of
tobacco-juice in my direction so dexterously that I had some difficulty
in avoiding it, and then remarked--

"Waal, my noble Britisher, what the tarnation mischief do yew mean by
firin' them brass popguns of yourn at me, eh? What right have yew to
shoot at a ship flyin' the galorious Stars and Stripes? D'ye see them
handsome barkers of mine?"--pointing to a fine display of e